John Cusack Joins Malin Akerman In The Numbers Station

Back in April of 2010, it looked as though Ethan Hawke was going to be reteaming with Sean and Bryan Furst - the producers of the vampire flick Daybreakers - for the action thriller The Numbers Station. Since then news about the project has been slim, with the exception of news that broke in September of last year, announcing that Malin Akerman had joined the cast as well. Fast forward a year and while Akerman is attached, it looks like Hawke has been replaced.

Variety is reporting that John Cusack has been cast to star in The Numbers Station. Directed by Danish filmmaker Kasper Barfoed (The Candidate) and written by F. Scott Frazier, the movie is about a "disgraced black-ops agent" who is reduced to playing bodyguard to a code operator for a secret CIA broadcast station. While the article doesn't say it, one can assume that the drama begins when the outpost falls under attack. The film is scheduled to go into production next month.

Cusack has a fairly heavy upcoming schedule, with The Factory bowing in December and The Raven, Limbo, The Paperboy, and The Frozen Ground all coming out in 2012. The actor's last film was the Steve Pink comedy Hot Tub Time Machine.

This project sounds like pretty standard action fare, but I will say that I do like John Cusack in the role better than Ethan Hawke. Nothing against Hawke - he's a fine actor - but any time I get to be reminded of Cusack movies like Grosse Pointe Blank I see it as a win.